The course “Medical Story-Worlds,” funded by the David A. Gardner ’69 Magic Project Grant in the Humanities Council is being taught at Princeton for the first time this fall. It addresses questions around illness, health and the human body through a wide range of literary texts from all over the world.
The Humanities Council invited Elena Fratto and Tala Khanmalek to create a course as part of its medical humanities initiative. Medical humanities is one of the informal pathways through which students can pursue a certificate in humanistic studies, along with digital humanities and urban humanities.
Elena Fratto, an assistant professor of Slavic languages and literatures, and Tala Khanmalek, a postdoctoral research associate in the programs in gender and sexuality studies and American studies, are co-teaching the course. It includes a pedagogical component — the undergraduate course — and a research component called the Bodies of Knowledge Working Group, also sponsored by the Humanities Council.
